By Sam Sifton
- Total Time
- 3 hours, plus 5 days' brining
- Rating
- 4(1,366)
- Notes
- Read community notes
“The reason to corn your own beef is flavor,” said Michael Ruhlman, a chef and passionate advocate of the process. He wrote about it with Brian Polcyn in their book, “Charcuterie: The Craft of Salting, Smoking and Curing.” “You can achieve tastes that aren’t available in the mass produced versions,” he said. Feel free to experiment with the “pickling spices” called for below — you can customize them, if you like, from a base of coriander seeds, black peppercorns and garlic — but please do not omit the curing salt, which gives the meat immense flavor in addition to a reddish hue. (It’s perfectly safe, Mr. Ruhlman exhorts: “It’s not a chemical additive. Most of the nitrates we eat come in vegetables!”) Finally, if you want a traditional boiled dinner, slide quartered cabbage and some peeled carrots into the braise for the final hour or so of cooking. Or use the meat for Irish tacos.
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Ingredients
Yield:8 to 12 servings
- 2cups coarse kosher salt
- ½cup sugar
- 5garlic cloves, smashed
- 5tablespoons pickling spices
- 1tablespoon plus 1 teaspoon pink curing salt (sodium nitrite)
- 14- to 5-pound beef brisket
- 2bottles of good beer
- 2bottles of good ginger beer
Ingredient Substitution Guide
Preparation
Step
1
Brine the brisket: In a medium pot set over high heat, combine about a gallon of water, the salt, the sugar, the garlic, 3 tablespoons pickling spices and the pink curing salt. Stir mixture as it heats until sugar and salt are dissolved, about 1 minute. Transfer liquid to a container large enough for the brine and the brisket, then refrigerate until liquid is cool.
Step
2
Place brisket in the cooled liquid and weigh the meat down with a plate so it is submerged. Cover container and place in the refrigerator for 5 days, or up to 7 days, turning every day or so.
Step
3
To cook brisket, remove it from the brine and rinse under cool water. Place in a pot just large enough to hold it and cover with one of the beers and one of the ginger beers. If you need more liquid to cover the meat, add enough of the other beer, and the other ginger beer, to do so. Add remaining 2 tablespoons pickling spices. Bring to a boil over high heat, then turn heat to low so liquid is barely simmering. Cover and let cook until you can easily insert a fork into the meat, about 3 hours, adding water along the way if needed to cover the brisket.
Step
4
Keep warm until serving, or let cool in the liquid and reheat when ready to eat, up to three or four days. Slice thinly and serve on sandwiches, in Irish tacos (see recipe) or with carrots and cabbage simmered until tender in the cooking liquid.
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1,366
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Cooking Notes
Terri McFadden
Why heat all of the water when you are preparing the brine and have to let it cool? When I make a brine for a turkey I heat about a quart of water with salt, sugar and spices heat and stir until dissolved and then add this to the rest of the cold water, mix and add meat.
Nancy
I have used Ruhlman's recipe for years, with the Penzey's Corned Beef Spices. I cook the brined brisket in a slow cooker, fat side up, for 8 hrs on low, with 1-1/2 C water. Before serving I glaze it in the oven at 350 for ~15 minutes, until golden brown, and then let it rest ~15 minutes before slicing. Divine!
Glaze:
3 tablespoons packed brown sugar
1 ½ tablespoons soy sauce
1 ½ teaspoons dry mustard
1 teaspoon ground ginger
chris kenber
I've followed this recipe for several years and it's excellent. once it's cured i smoke it for about 5 to 6 hours (sort of pastrami?) and then braise it gently in Guinness with assorted root vegetables. but i serve it with colcannon cakes so no cabbage. followed by a Guinness/ chocolate cake from Nigella which is both unusual and delicious. and of course soda bread -- in this case with currants and mixed herbs.
ladyonthesoapbox
I stopped boiling cabbage years ago. Instead, I slice it and stir fry it quickly with a little salt and sugar (very small amount - maybe 1 teaspoon). From Good Housekeepineg cookbook from 40 years ago. Delicious!
Becca
I just dug out my copy of Charcuterie and Ruhlman recommends weighing (rather than using a specific type of salt) & includes weights in the brine recipe there:
1 gallon water
450 grams kosher salt
100 grams sugar
25 grams pink salt
3 cloves garlic
20 grams pickling spices
plus another 20 grams pickling spices for the simmer & no mention of beer or ginger beer.
Good luck!
Sam Sifton
I've used a few different ones. Most recently, one from Medley Hills Farm: Prague Powder Curing Salt #1.
Sunny
Where does one buy sodium nitrite?
Mollyo
There seems to be conflicting research on this. Here is a recently updated review on nitrate/nitrite safety which concludes that current research shows no cancer link. They also mention in the summary that nitrates & nitrites are now considered by some to be "indispensible nutrients essential for cardiovascular health by promoting nitric oxide production." (!) https://www.researchgate.net/publication/230665462_Ingested_nitrate_and_...
Carol
I don't mean to ruffle any feathers ( or get your Irish up!), but I spent 40 years in Texas, so here's my question: why would you want to ruin a perfectly good brisket by turning it into corned beef?
HF
well we eat with our eyes first, and to me at least, need that color for corned beef. Note too that it is nitrite, not nitrate. It also was a godsend in preventing botulism, and it is on the WHO's list of essential medicines. Some chemicals are good, where as some natural substances (arsenic anyone?) aren't. The recipe uses a lot more of another chemical, sodium chloride,. Of course salt, while natural, is also a concern. Moderation in everything, overall, works for me.
Tom H
Gaaak! Way too salty!
Here are some brine concentration percentages for different salt types at this recipes recommended proportions:
Morton Kosher salt:13%
Diamond Kosher salt: 9.5%
Table salt:16%
Pickling salt:15.6%
Fine sea salt:13.7%
So unless you used Diamond, you got too much salt
An online search found that most recipe sites/blogs either copied the NYT brine recipe or Alton Browns's
Alton Brown's brine concentration is: 8.7% (!)
I'm going with Alton next time.
Nicholas Yarmoshuk
5 Tblsp to start
3 Tbsp in Brine
2 Tblsp remainder to be used with beer
Diane
I always make my corned beef in a slow cooker. Add the corned beef to the crock pot with a large can of beer, some pickling spice, a handful of whole black peppercorns and several cloves of garlic. Cook on low for about 4-5 hours. Super easy and super delicious.
Mark
Best of 2 worlds: this approach for curing (but cut salt by almost half). Cured 7 days in a large ziplock bag. Rinsed well, placed in pot, covered with dark lager, ginger beer and water, tossed in some additional pickling spice, brought to SIMMER (not boil) -- then placed pot partly covered in 200F oven for 7-9 hours (method "borrowed" from Kenji Lopez Alt). Let cool to room temp then refrigerated in cooking liquid 2 days. Sliced some thick for dinner, some thin for sandwiches.
Sam Sifton
Yes, use #1, and all will be well. You're only going to cook this thing like once or twice a year.
nancy lengyel
May I leave it in the brine longer than 7 days?
Patti C
Been brining beef for about 6 years. This recipe is not salty and has great flavor!For 5#:3/4 c kosher salt 1/2 c brown sugar2 Tbs Prague #2 powder2 cloves garlic minced3 - 6 qts water, depending on size of beef1/3 cup of pickling spice:2 Tbs black peppercorns 2 Tbs mustard seed2 Tbs coriander seeds2 Tbs red pepper flakes 2 Tbs allspice berries 1 Tbs ground mace2 small cinnamon stick broken into pieces2 Tbs whole cloves1 Tbs ground gingerBrine 7 - 10 days
Sasha
Is there an alternative to pink salt?
RMJ
No need to make a full gallon of brine. I found a cheap 1.1 gallon low-profile red-lid plastic storage container that holds a ten-by-nine inch five-pound brisket. With the raw meat in the container, fill full of water, measure the amount of water, and just make that much brine — it turned out, I think, half a gallon.I used Penzeys corned beef spice mix - grind it before using. Slow cooker low, in 6oz ginger beer 32oz beef broth (the beer I had was too hoppy, high IBU). Beef came out great!
Stephanie Anne
couldn't find curing salt locally so left it out and it turned out great! I used a 3 lb brisket in a gallon ziplock. "good beer" is rather subjective, so I looked up ideas and went with Guinness and a local beer with cocoa and chocolate. Tasted like corned beef! We made the Irish Tacos with it and everyone was happy.
Robyn M
Can I leave out the curing salt? I can’t find it in my local stores and I’m out of time to order it
Jon
I assume this could be done with a smaller, maybe 2-3lb piece? Single diner here! Thanks.
Judith
Can I make this without sodium nitrite? Or is the sodium nitrite an integral part of the pickling process?
Lightbody
Sodium nitrite has anti-bacterial properties, and is used to prevent harmful bacterial growth during corning. So not using it is a bit of a crapshoot with serious consequences... Sodium nitrate (naturally found in celery) isn't anti-bacterial but can work, as it's converted to nitrite by bacteria--but you have less control over the anti-bacterial effectiveness.
gigi
where do you find beef brisket that is not corned (that is the only type I ever see.)?
Lisa Laskin
Once you corn your own beef, you won't go back to the supermarket version
Carajo
This recipe also works well with an eye of round, top/bottom round, or a rump roast.
Tim
Has anyone ever made this without the beer? If so, what did you sub? Want to make this for St. Patty’s Day, but I’m Celiac and can’t have gluten. TIA.
Beth
I’ve made this every year since publication as written & it’s ridiculously delicious- boiled for St Pats day or smoked for pastrami
Vic
Sorry to throw a damper on this but “nitrates” are not the same as “nitrites.” Nitrites have serious health effects. Nitrates, which are far more common, do not. While some vegetables (celery, for example) do contain nitrites naturally, the high dosages of nitrites from cured meats or curing salt far exceeds the naturally occurring amounts. Just be aware of this and use nitrite sparingly. Maybe just for special occasions
Bill
I'm afraid you are correct, Vic, and it is for this reason that my lady and I cannot consume corned beef, or ham, or any sort of cured pork, including those labeled "no nitrates added", but which contain celery powder, which turns into nitrites. She suffers from atrial fibrillation ("a-fib"), and her cardiologist is one of many who warn that nitrites can trigger a-fib episodes. We tried corning beef last year without pink salt. It was disgusting.
Robyn
Excellent recipe! I do soak my fully brined brisket in a pot of water in the refrigerator overnight before draining and cooking the next day. It prevents it from being too salty.
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